Meant to be: Naley through the eyes of the world
by ilyawh
Summary: Pretty much what the title says: Nathan and Haley as seen by the world around them. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

Karen's POV

Nathan was always to me a constant reminder of what I could have had with Dan.

I know, I know, Dan's a jerk. I didn't miss out on much by not sticking out with him. But there was always that part of me that wanted a happy family and since I already had Dan's son I always figured the easiest way to get that was with Dan. Somewhere in the back of my head. Nathan was my reality check. My get-your-feet-back-to-Earth card.

He looked a lot like Dan too. My Lucas takes more after my side of the family and I rarely had a moment when I looked at him and saw Dan. But Nathan... Nathan was young Dan in the flesh.

For the most time I thought Nathan was doomed to repeat Dan's life. He had Dan as a repeat of Royal to bully him into basketball. He had the charm to get anywhere in life way too easily and to fall into the trap of believing that everything is there for the taking. He sure gave the impression that he had fallen in it most of the time.

Nathan also completely avoided me. I only remember a couple of times where our eyes met and he quickly dodged. I always figured he was ashamed of his father's past. I never imposed my presence on the Scotts, or at least not on those Scotts. So I just let him be. And part of me felt sorry for him. He had little chance of getting out of the life that was just placed in front of him.

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Haley was Lucas' best friend. She had been our neighbour for just about as long as I can remember. They played together since they were little children. I had always rooted for her and Lucas to get together but somewhere along the line I realized that they're better off and friends.

When she started working at my cafe, I got to know her better, and I'm sure glad I did. She's funny and down to earth and definitely the kind of person anyone would like around. I liked how she tutored people and enjoyed it. She liked helping people. She was a good person.

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So, then, when in a weird twist of fate, me and Deb become friends and she mentions that Haley is tutoring Nathan, my first reaction is pure shock. Not necessarilly to the tutoring part, but to the fact that Haley hadn't told me about it. She always liked talking about how some of her pupils would get better grades thanx to her. She was proud of that. And Nathan was doing better thanx to her. And yet, she mentioned nothing of it.

Of course, it was the fact that it WAS Nathan. After all, any discussion of Nathan was plain weird. So I dismissed it. When I asked her about it and she blushed I thought nothing of it. She saw it as helping the enemy and was rather ashamed of it.

And then the weird got weirder. The same night I came to the cafe to check on what I needed to buy, since the next day was supply day. To my surprise, Nathan was sitting at the door, knocking. To MY door, the door that linked the world to his father's mistake.

I saw Haley come near the door and not opening it. Simply turning off the lights. And I saw Nathan leave and for the first time in my life I saw a sad look on his face. Not the signature smirk, not his father arrogance, not the confidence that he boosted just about everywhere. Sadness. He turned around and saw me and for the first time he didn't dodge my eyes. Somehow I don't think he registered it was me.

And when the next day he knocked on my cafe's door again I finally realized what was going on. Haley stopped short and seemed to doubt whether or not to go to him. He threw her a pleading look and she looked at me questioningly. I told her to go. And that was the beginning of everything.

I completely hold Haley responsible for Nathan and Lucas becoming what they are today.

Nathan on his own was a good kid and somehow I have a feeling he would have come around eventually. But he was trained to hate Lucas and he did hate Lucas so bad that I don't think anyone else or anything else could have convinced him to give up on that. Lucas also resented Nathan so much for getting the life that he was supposed to have that it truly was a hopeless case.

So Nathan would have been good anyway. And Lucas would have been good anyway. But they never would have become brothers had there not been for Haley.

To me, Nathan and Haley were meant to be. They had to be together. Not only because they look as great together as they do and because they're as in love as they are nor because they truly fit in every sense of the way. Rather because Nathan and Haley led to Nathan and Lucas.


	2. Chapter 2

Keith's POV

Dan abandoned Lucas so I abandoned Nathan. It made sense at the time. As years went by and Nathan was turning into a little Dan, I never ever looked back and regretted my choice.

I am ashamed to admit but at the beginning of Nathan's junior year I had no idea who he was while knowing Haley – not even a little related to me – quite well.

When Lucas joined the team, for me it was a way to show him he was good, but also a way to stick it to Dan and Nathan. To me, Nathan was Dan, Lucas was me. Lucas was my one shot to win my competition with my little brother. Just like Dan was reliving his basketball youth through Nathan, I was reliving my youth in my brother's shadow through Lucas.

I remember when Nathan came to my shop to get Peyton's car and he and Lucas got into their usual sibling rivalry. And then Lucas told Nathan to stay away from Haley.

I didn't think much of it at the time because I thought it was just another episode in the Nathan-Lucas thing. But I did catch Nathan's look when Lucas mentioned Haley. Yeah, he was sticking it to Lucas, alright. Yeah, he was getting back at him for talking to Peyton. But there was something else in there.

So a couple of weeks later, Nathan shows up to pick up Haley from the cafe. And I catch Karen's look. It was like she was expecting it. And then my first thought was, Lucas was going for Peyton so Nathan was going for Haley. It sounded so much like my brother, it made sense.

And I was worried for Haley for a long time. Even as I was trying to ease up to Nathan's sudden presence in the cafe, even as I was trying to be friendly with him. All the while I thought Haley was way too much involved in the relationship for her own good.

And then he married her.

Nathan could have been like Dan. He had every chance to be like him. Even now I still recognize a mean streak in him when someone crosses him. He certainly isn't your typical goody two-shoes.

But Haley dragged Nathan out of the snakehole and turned him into the man we never knew he could be. And that's a miracle, if I ever saw one.

Sometimes I wonder if Dan just needed that one person to get him out too.


	3. Chapter 3

Peyton's POV:

I dated Nathan. For quite a while. But we never really got together, if you know what I mean. As far as I can remember, we never went on a date together, not properly: no flowers, no candies, no dinners. Just hook-ups after the game. And booty-calls. Everyone thought of us as a couple, and I suppose we were in a sense. But after being part of a real couple, now I can safely say me and Nathan were friends with benefits.

I'm proud to say I saw the Haley story long before anyone else.

I had figured out Nathan's plan when I saw Haley and Nathan on the docks one morning. When I approached him about it, he said she was tutoring him. And I knew what he was doing. Not because he wouldn't need tutoring, God knows he needed plenty, but his Daddy always made sure that Nathan would play and that his teachers would just make sure he gets good enough grades. So, it was obvious that Nathan wasn't there for the tutoring. And from figuring that out to the revenge on Lucas plan there was just one step. Especially after Nathan's jealousy fits when it came to my conversations with Lucas.

I realized that his plan was going to bite him in the ass when I saw them talking on the docks, at the night of his party. I knew he was trying to win her over, but he definitely looked like he wasn't trying too hard to be sincere. I knew the charming Nathan, the smile he put on for stupid cheerleaders and the way he worked his way under his skin and I had learned to make the difference between the Nathan that was being nice because he was trying to sleep with me and the Nathan who was trying to be nice because he needed a friend. And the one on the docks with Haley was definitely the second guy.

And somehow I felt that he was going to find that friend in Haley. Cause unlike the superficial cheerleaders and – why not? – unlike me, Haley was sincere in her desire for world peace and for everything to be alright. I had guessed her idea – she wanted to bring the brothers together through her tutoring.

And that she did.

It was no surprise to me when they got together. It was no surprise to me when they had endless conflicts because of Nathan's old self struggling for survival and Lucas' grudging acceptance of his friend's relationship. It was no surprise when Haley, insisting with her forgiving and peaceful attitude, managed to win.

I was happy for them when they got married. They were my hope for eternal love. They were the reason I asked Jake to marry me roughly a year later.

So even if my life didn't work out as well as theirs (not that theirs is easy, but at least they have each other), I'm still waiting to be part of my very own Naley. And I believe I will.


	4. Chapter 4

Mouth's POV

I grew up with Haley. Well, actually I grew up with Lucas who grew up with Haley, so I grew up with Haley by association. She was always nice to me and helped me whenever I needed it.

Somehow I always found it romantic to think that she and Lucas would end up together. Unfortunately for me and people who thought the same, she and him knew each other way too well for that to ever happen.

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There are two types of people in highschool: there's bullies and there's bullied. There are also two types of bullies: there's pathetic losers who want to distract the attention from their own pathetic personalities by bullying. And then there's smart bullies, people who are aware of what they are doing.

Nathan was definitely the second type and I was always aware of that. Years later I learnt that he was a bully because he was bullied at home. Because he was educated in the spirit of the jungle: eat or be eaten.

I never thought I'd be friends with Nathan. And I never thought that nice bookworm Haley James would have been the one to tame him.

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I first realized the change in Nathan one day at Karen's Cafe. Haley was on a break and she came to sit with me. Nathan showed up soon after that and sat on our table. Lucas had mentioned something about her tutoring him but I had never seen them together till then. He was very nice to her and, to my shock, after her break ended and she went back to work, he was nice to me. I remember feeling extremely confused as he behaved like we'd known each other forever. Which of course we did, but not on friendly terms.

I also remember that as I left I kept wondering why he came to the cafe, since he hadn't asked her anything about school.

Now I realize that Nathan and Haley are much more romantic than the boringly predictable Nathan and Lucas. She saved him from a deadbit father. He saved her from a boring existence. She helped him find his altruistic side, while he helped her find her selfish side. Both just as necessary in a person, if you ask me.

And then there's of course the whole idea that the most popular guy in school could fall that hard for a geek. That means the most popular girl in school could do likewise...


	5. Chapter 5

Brooke's POV

Nathan is me without the boobs. And, OK, he's a little more edgy than me. Less refined, if you want. But we think the same, we act by the same logic and we basically are the same.

My parents ignored me, his parents bullied him. While a different action, it had a similar effect – it developed a lack of trust for both of us. While I had Peyton, he had no-one.

We even slept together a couple of times – don't tell Peyton. It was a sort of understanding we had – we both knew it was just sex and nothing else. We could have never been really together – two people so much alike would have been boring as hell.

We recognized each other as similar. Never talked to each other about it but there was this sort of understanding between us. Even if I disagreed with his relationship with Peyton – they just weren't right for each other – it wasn't because I disagreed with him as a person.

Tutor Girl was a friend of Lucas' so I noticed her when I noticed Lucas. And believe me, nothing gets by me. I believe I was the first to state out loud what later became Nathan and Haley. The basketball game with the Pickerington Hicks said it all. I know Nathan was still kidding himself that it was all about getting Lucas and Haley was kidding herself that it was jsut tutoring. But it was obvious they were both lying to each other at some level.

After we picked Nathan and Lucas up from the middle of the road, we stopped by at the gym, so I could drop the pom-poms that were in the back of the car. Peyton and Lucas helped me. When we came back, Haley and Nathan were talking and were completely oblivious to the outside world. I remember Lucas' face as he watched them. I think he knew then too. I think they were starting to know too.

OK, so I was the one who screwed them up. More than once. But I swear I never meant to. And it only made them stronger in the end!

I liked the idea of _them_. While me and Peyton keep alternating on Lucas, while everyone else keeps switching, they stay together. So she left for a while. But he never once strayed while she was gone. And she came back. And that's what was meant to happen. Maybe they met too young, maybe they should have met later after they had put everything else aside. When they were old enough to deal with such a life-altering relationship.

Actually, you know what? I'm glad they met young, I'm glad they married young. We should all meet our soulmates at 17. Makes everything so much easier, to know that you've got someone there for you. The world teaches you that you should be independent and marry when you're like 30 but I think that's a bunch of crap. We all want to find love, why not sooner rather than later?

I'm happy for them. I'm happy for Nathan. And I'm happy for me cause I just might find my own soulmate soon.


End file.
